Best Way to Peel Peaches

This year, my two peach trees decided to produce a boatload of peaches.  In prior years, only one peach tree produced enough peaches that survived the onslaught of every animal in town.  { Invitations were sent out to all animals within five miles of my property. “Smorgasbord at Anna’s house.  Don’t be late.”}  Faced with an excessive amount of peaches, I was doomed.  How was I ever going to peel all those peaches?

Well, I got busy, frustrated, and then a lightning bolt hit me.  So when you get what you wished for {um, lots of peaches,}  check out my easy peach peeling method.

A Little Peach History First

Ohh, come on Anna. Just tell us your secret.  

Just hold your panties.  You need to know how I figured this out.  Normally, you peel peaches by blanching them.  Well, no one told me to make sure your peaches are ripe before you blanch.  I was in survival mode with those peaches.

Alternatively, I would take down the peaches just a tad before they ripened since I started loosing the animal versus Anna battle. Everytime, the wind would blow, a ton of peaches would fall to the ground.

The next day, I would hurry outside and retrieve them to find that someone or somebody got there first.  Pits were all over the ground.   If you could picture this, I was on all fours crawling around picking up those peaches.  I swear  I found some empty wine bottles and Doritos bags on the ground as well.  A regular party was going on in the dark.

Just in case, you want to pipe in.  Yes, I have an 8 foot fence.  The rabbits some how snuck under the fence. You know how  I feel about rabbits in my garden. Unfortunately, the neighbor’s cat who is quite crafty, tangoed with the rabbits.  I found two dead by the trees.

I was horrified and made hubs dispose of them.  Okay, I wanted to toss my own cookies after I saw the rabbit mess and then stayed up most of the night Googling WHO would have done such an awful thing.  A cat.  The one who figures out how to jump into my garden.

Blanching Failures

Can you imagine blanching 30 peaches every night.  Surprisingly, I couldn’t figure out why the skins never completely came off.  They tasted ripe to me.  Apparently not ripe enough.  Or alternatively, I stink at blanching.

Plus, blanching is time consuming:  Boiling the peaches, putting them on  ice, and then peeling them.  *Yawn*  I could think of better things to do like watching the party outside as the animals drank and ate my peaches.

Just in case, you have another “but Anna,”  knives and I don’t get along so peeling them isn’t an option.  The knife always wins.

Lightning Bolt Time

Frustrated, I started muttering to myself like a crazy old lady, “what if I stuck them in the freezer?”   It works with my tomato skins.

What have I got to lose?  I put the peaches on a cookie tray and in the freezer they went for 24 hours.

Guess what?

IT WORKED.  You thought I won the lottery.

I would defrost two bags at time and keep the skins.  {Guess, what I did with the skins?  A promised future post. Think delish.}  Honestly, I haven’t mastered the peaches not browning despite my excessive use of lemons.  Pipe in if you are a pro at the keeping the peaches yellow rather than brown.

Where are they now?  Back in the freezer.  I will be making jam with the peaches, or salsa, or something else lip smacking good.

Who says the animals have to have all the fun?

Join the Conversation

• Do you have any tricks on how to peel your peaches?
• How do you keep them from browning?

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